Unless you can see Christ in me, you are failing as a Christian. Unless I see
Guru in you I am failing as a Sikh. Jesus says that as you have treated the
least of people, so you have treated me (Matthew 25:40). Guru Gobind Singh
asked the disciple Bhai Kannaya why he was providing water to the enemy troops
in a battle. He answered that he could only see the Guru’s Face. The Guru
then asked him to apply ointment as well as provide water!

So, if we all follow a Christian will see someone sitting over there as Jesus
and I will That Same One as Guru Gobind Singh. Does that person have two
faces, apart from their “ordinary” face? No. I will see Christ, not Jesus.
I will see Guru but not Guru Gobind Singh. Jesus and Guru Gobind Singh have
different faces because they have different bodies, but Christ and Guru have
One Face because they reflect One Light. Do not worship the body, but
recognise the One Holy Spirit. Thus, Sikhs have ten Gurus. There were ten
bodies, yet One Guru in all ten. To emphasise that the Guru was Spirit, not
body, Siri Guru Granth Sahib Ji is the Guru, though to the worshippers of
bodies it is only a book. And for matters of discipline Guru Khalsa Panth is
the Guru, though to the worshippers of body these are only ordinary people.

Jesus says, “Thy Will be done” (Matthew 6:10). Guru reveals walking along
the “hukam”. But what is this Will? The Guru says that the Will cannot be
stated, and the only one who knows it is the one who has realised it, free
from ego (Japji Sahib, 1-2). Either it is Thy will or my will. And my will can
never lead me to You. So, what is Thy Will? Jesus says that there are two
commands - love God with all heart, mind, and body, and love neighbour as self
(Mark 12:28-31). Guru says, “Jin prem kio tin he Prabh paio.” Only those
who Love have realised God. (Swayyas 9) But is this possible?

Is it possible to Love? Is it possible to have no hatred, because if you Hate
anyone or anything you are not filled with Love : my will - my hatred is still
there. God is without hate, “nirvair”. (Mul Mantra) God causes the sun to
shine on the good and the wicked. Guru says that the One who has realised “sees
the indignant and Indra with the same eye.” When someone offends you, do you
see them as a king of angels? Jesus says if you lust after a woman you should
cast out your eye. Better that you should lose this than lose God (Matthew
5:28). The disciples are shocked - I can’t do this! Exactly, “you” can’t.
“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
(Matthew: 19:26)

You cannot obey God. Only God can obey God. Only God can help you. What you
can do is choose whether you want to point your face to God - GurMukh - or
point it to yourself - manmukh - and spin in circles torturing yourself.

Being a Christian is about being a disciple of Jesus, yet Jesus did not cut
his hair being a Nazarene, and he wore a turban. He was dark which is why he
was hidden in Egypt as a baby (Matthew 2:14). He carried a sword: “I have
not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34), and his close
disciple, Peter, the rock of the Church also carried and indeed used his sword
to defend Jesus when he was arrested (John 18: 10-11). What was his spiritual
discipline? No one today knows. Guru Gobind Singh bowed before the first five
Khalsa and acknowledging them as representing the Guru Khalsa Panth, begged to
be initiated by the Guru Khalsa Panth. The Khalsa discipline (Sikh Reht
Maryada) is the discipline of the Guru.

Just as earlier Gurus had added to the discipline of the Sikhs, by extending
the prayers to include verses revealed through later Gurus, so the Guru Khalsa
Panth is empowered to evolve the discipline keeping in harmony with the
unchanging Divine Word. The Sikh Reht Maryada is the latest utterance of the
Guru Khalsa Panth. It cannot be changed or challenged by any individual; the
various leaders of the Sikh nation (Jathedars of the Five Takhts (Thrones) are
executive officers to interpret and implement only. The Pope has the power he
does because no one knows what Jesus did or would do - there are monks and
nuns in Orders of Jesus but they really don’t know what he did - what
prayers did he recite and at what times? These Orders follow rules made by
their founding masters, rather than Jesus. Jesus was the Word made flesh, but
when he left the world the Word went with him. The New Testament is a
commentary/biography on the Word, equivalent to the Janamsakhis. In today’s
world, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji is the Word.

When Jesus was a Nazarene or Essene he would not have touched wine or cut his
hair. This we know from the testimony of Samson who was also a Nazarene: “A
razor has never come upon my head for I have been a Nazarite to God from my
mother’s womb.” (Judges 16:17). So, the question is simply did he later
cut his hair or drink wine? There is no evidence that he cut his hair. Did he
drink wine? I would suggest to you that the “wine” he drank was not the
physical intoxicant but the wine of spiritual intoxication. In the wedding
where he turns water to wine, he turns the everyday into the spiritual - this
slakes our thirst much better (John 2:7-9). How Jesus lived has little to do
with how Christians, supposedly disciples, interpret and follow his example.
“Bani Guru, Guru hai bani.” = The Word is the Guru, Guru is the Word. We
have Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Which Word do the Christians have? Jesus was
the Word made flesh and is no longer here for consultation, unlike Guru Granth
Sahib Ji.

We have idols in our minds of what saints look like - they are wide-eyed
innocents. Yet Jesus smashed the stalls in the Temple and “making a whip of
cords drove them out.” (John 2:15) I don’t think that the stall-holders
felt that he loved them but he did, nor were his disciples to be doe-eyed
innocents relying solely on God, tempting God by being irresponsible and lazy.
On another encounter with the religious legalists, “he looked around at them
with anger.” (Mark 3:1-5) Trusting in Grace does not mean lack of Effort.

We have to love. Love God, love self, love neighbour, love creation. Most
Christians focus on God and neighbour, and despise self and creation - hence
the obsession with penance, austerity, rejection of joy in this life through
marriage. Yet Guru Ji says that Creator and creation are One. One image used
is as a Dancer and dance (Jaap Sahib, 48) When the Dancer Wills there is a
dance, and that dance is separate from the Dancer yet also part of the Dancer.
Guru Ji says that God and self are One - “You are I, I am You.” Can you
separate gold and a gold bangle, or a drop in an ocean. Jesus says, “I and
the Father are One.” (John 10:30)All of us can be if we stop hating and
start loving. If there is hate, there is no True Love, for God has no hate “Nirvair”.
If we hate ourselves or hate life we cannot love God or anyone.

A crowd of people was chasing an adulteress and wanted to stone her to death.
It is the religious law they cried. When Jesus asked which one of them was
without sin, they dropped their stones and went home. Was he condoning
adultery or other forms of sex outside marriage or was he saying that it is
better to judge yourself than others? (John 8: 3-9) Perhaps one meaning of the
story becomes clearer if we pair this story with another when he told his
disciples that it was better to cast out their eyes than gaze lustfully. They
protested that it is impossible. Precisely - no one can be good enough
to “deserve” God. Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji tells us, “I was
without merit. You showed Grace and made me worthy.” (Slok, Mahalla 5,
Rehras Sahib)Only God has virtues. S/He gifts them as S/He pleases. I am
nothing. You are Everything. We depend on you.

The ordinary person loves their ego, their “I am”. The religious person
often ends up worshipping the ego, in the “hero-ego” state. If I do this
and this and this and don’t do that and that and that I will find God. God
is not lost - it is the “I” which is lost. Better let God find you. Does
that mean effort has no place? Far from it - it means that you keep
spiritually travelling but God will give you the clues and even when you reach
the Door, you can only knock - God will open in Her/His own time.

There are many different ways to become disciples of Jesus. There are many
baptisms - baptism at birth, baptism before death (so that you don’t sin
before you die); baptism by a bit of holy water, baptism by full immersion;
baptism by water, baptism by the Holy Spirit. It was because of this confusion
that the Christians of the Middle East were divided up and converted, albeit
under social and economic pressures, to fairly clear-cut Islam when it showed
up.

Sikhs today become initiated in the Order of the Khalsa in the same way as
Guru Gobind Singh Ji nearly 300 years ago. Baptism is a form of martyrdom -
you offer your head, your wisdom and accept the Guru’s care and discipline.
For any personal problems ask Sri Guru Granth Sahib for hukam, for queries on
discipline, consult Guru Khalsa Panth’s Sikh Reht Maryada. But a living
martyrdom is difficult - far easier to make a dramatic gesture. Most people
love their ego, the (self)-righteous worship it; the God-oriented are busy
with God...ego, oh that...they forget about it in Love.

In a strange scene Jesus meets a possessed man. The demons come and bow before
Jesus. Jesus than asks their name and then sends them away. (The demons then
enter some pigs that then die.) (Mark 5: 1-13). This is a very different image
from that of the Christian with Crucifix in hand, ordering demons to leave in
the name of Jesus. How different is Jesus and Christianity, love for enemies
and exclusivity based on a personality cult.

The five demonical urges in human beings - pride, anger, lust, greed,
attachment - can be gotten rid off by loving them. Get to know them, ask their
name. Who are you, greed? Why do you keep collecting all this dust? I realise
that you are trying to help me to keep body and soul together. Thank you. But
realise it is all a gift. The Owner is not you: you cannot own them, be sure
that they do not own you. Hello, lust. I am part of this physical life. You
help me enjoy the sacred joys of flesh. You provide me with that. But can you
ever make me feel that I am loveable? When “I” Love, “I” become
Loveable. And when “I” Love, there is no space for hate. And how sick to
hate these five servants. They bear an awful face only because we have become
their servants. We like them being the masters, we are addicted to it.
Rather than freeing ourselves from such addiction, it is far easier to blame,
indeed to demonise them. The Guru offers us a different addiction to get away
from this - the sweet waters of life of the Living Word, and the intoxicating
nectar of the Naam - the Praise/Presence/Gur-Manter of God.

In mystical terms the crucifixion represents death followed by re-birth,
martyrdom followed by the victory over death. The varying myths Christians
have manufactured about freeing people from sin need not detain us. Such
beliefs owe more to the Cults of Mithras and Isis than the teachings of the
Master Jesus. Martyrdom and heroism are linked in Amrit baptism. One offers
one’s head - the ideas of previous life - gets admitted in a religious order
in which personal matters are settled by Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and
doctrinal matters are settled by Guru Khalsa Panth’s Sikh Reht Maryada - and
works towards becoming a spiritual hero - conquering the ego by letting it go.

The mystic warrior is an archetype buried deep within the psyche of all
humankind. Obi Wan Kenobi is the Khalsa, Darth Vader a renegade having given
in to the five thieves they now control him and his destiny. Darth Vader works
hard to establish his worth, Obi Wan Kenobi realises that he has no worth and
is, therefore, priceless. “If I cut you down, you will cease to exist, but
if you cut me down I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
(Star Wars) Kenobi’s worth is the smile of an infant, a sunset on the beach,
or a raindrop ... leaving aside artificial efforts to establish the self of
the average person or the self-hero worship of the religious person, he
accepts the Nature-self of the mystic conqueror where death and life are
unities and a constant re-birth of the holy spirit in the trickling of
nectar...

Jesus said that a person should render unto Caesar that which belonged to
Caesar, and to God what belonged to God. (Luke 20:22-25) Thus, the spiritual
and the political life was separated. The spiritualists could withdraw from
life into monasteries and the political need have no spiritual direction. The
Gurus, on the other hand, recognised God as the True Ruler. The spiritual life
(peeri) and the political life (meeri) would balance each other, realise each
other for God is the Midst of the Everyday, the Miracle is every Moment.

Gurmat is about liberation - liberation from the cycles of birth and death in
which we chase our tail, liberation from the five urges that we worship rather
than God, liberation from mythologies, which contradict the scientific
knowledge we have painstakingly accumulated, liberation from male exploitation
of women, religious persecution and hatred, racial injustice and oppression of
human rights. The chains that bind any one of these categories slip into all
of them. We love these chains. We are like prisoners that cannot cope outside
of jail. To be chained is not to be Free, to despise any is to be far from
(yet one is always near to) Love. “The mouth of the hungry is the golak of
the Guru.” Sikhism without social activism is sick. Let us all drink the
medicine of the Word and Name.

Christianity has travelled in an hourglass image. First, it spread widely
including Africa and Asia before coming to Europe, then it was European, and
then with the period of European expansion it has become worldwide. One
problem it has faced in this third phase is the European bias that has
travelled with it, for instance, the pre-Christian Christmas Tree. Sikhs have
also grown in three phases - all-India and into Central Asia at the times of
the Ten Gurus, then Punjabi, and now with migrations, conversions from local
populations and re-discovery of millions of Sikhs scattered in Utter Pradesh,
Rajastan, Orissa, etc. also a worldwide religion. Yet even in this third phase
Sikhism has taken things from the native soil of Punjab - the pre-Sikh
brahminical-yogic traditions based on effort rather than Grace.

It is from these traditions that we find the emphasis on human effort rather
than Divine Grace. Effort leads to confidence in ego, Grace to surrender of
the ego; effort focuses on disputes about codes of behaviour, Grace on the
changes within; effort condemns others as not strict enough to deserve, Grace
accepts all, starts from a recognition of our nothingness and accepts all as a
Gift of Love, and whatever is offered as insufficient. If I wanted to kill
you, what would you give me to save your life - some money, some food, what?
Everything? Would you promise to become my slave? Funny how you might become
my slave to save your life but hesitate to become God’s slave who gave you
life. Effort puts a price on God and self - a few prayers, a bit of charity, a
bit of this, a bit of that, now I am good enough. Grace focuses on our love of
despite, our love of control. We love our chains of the five energies -
freedom is so risky. We love to hate, because we hate ourselves - we have put
a price on ourselves and struggle to pay, rather than accept that we are
Priceless; we want to control the world and God through our efforts - I have
done this, so You must do that, rather than accept the Beauty of the Will That
Is. There is a difference between the fervent striving arising from the action
of Grace and reliance on human effort and ingenuity.

In the UK perhaps as many young Sikhs convert to Christianity as Islam, though
since they are not specifically targeted there is less tension. The reason:
lack of English in the Gurdwaras makes the proceedings rather dull. One
purpose of these pieces has been to provide some basic information comparing
the two. Another purpose is that the Sri Guru Granth Sahib is open mysticism,
whereas mystic traditions have always been hidden (if not lost) in religions.
Thus, any Sikh will provide a re-interpretation of Christian teachings whose
hallmark will be spirituality and clarity. Jesus and Christianity are separate
things. The final purpose is to learn from the Christian tradition. Jesus
faced two sets of opponents - the Sadducees (scholars - kitabi (bookish)
Sikhs) and Pharisees (Jewish legalist spiritualists - sants and sects). One
group was doubtful of the spiritual life, the other confused spirituality with
rigorous discipline focused on extended prayers, special diets, mantras,
communion with dead spirits of the holy, miraculous powers, etc to deserve God
rather than seeking Grace in humility and love. Our society today is divided
in the same way, though writers like Professor Sahib Singh, Bhai Sahib Veer
Singh Ji and Professor Puran Singh Ji, and some others point out the spiritual
way through their writings.

A society fighting against itself cannot stand up for long. The wars between
the various sant (ultra-orthodox, charismatic) groups of Christians in Turkey
and North Africa confused all of them and they converted to Islam with its
simplicity, balance and direction. The kitabi Christians of Rome were united
and survived. In India the various sant and sect groups are shading into
Hinduism. Yet that does not mean that the kitabi Christians had it right - the
Church became the playground for politicians as most spiritual seekers chose
the seclusion of monasteries. The Singh Sabha movement began in 1873 and
climaxed in 1920 bringing spirituality, unity, and clarity. Seventy years
later our Gurdwaras are legal battlefields. Where are the Veer Singhs and
Puran Singhs of today? I hope some of you Singhs and Kaurs reading this will
ask yourself and take up the challenge of spiritual renewal.

Dr Kanwar Ranvir Singh

All references for Gurmat are to the Nitnem (Daily Prayers). For Jesus all
references are to the four Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.